Noakhali riots

Noakhali riots নোয়াখালী গণহত্যা
Gandhi listens to a survivor in Noakhali
Location	Noakhali Region, Bengal, British India
Date	October–November 1946
Target	Bengali Hindus
Attack type	Massacre, Forced conversion, Plunder, Arson, Abduction and Rape
Deaths	5,000 – 10,000
Perpetrators	Muslim National Guards, ex-servicemen, private militia
Motive	Muslim community attacked Hindu community for wealth and forced conversion to Islam

The Noakhali riots, also known as the Noakhali genocide or the Noakhali Carnage, were a series of massacres, rapes, abductions and forced conversions of Hindus into Muslim and looting and arson of Hindu properties, perpetrated by the Muslim community in the districts of Noakhali in the Chittagong Division of Bengal in October–November 1946, a year before India's independence from British rule. It affected the areas under the Ramganj, Begumganj, Raipur, Lakshmipur, Chhagalnaiya and Sandwip police stations in Noakhali district and the areas under the Hajiganj, Faridganj, Chandpur, Laksham and Chauddagram police stations in Tipperah district, a total area of more than 2,000 square miles.

The massacre of the Hindu population started on 10 October, on the day of Kojagari Lakshmi Puja, and continued unabated for about a week. It is estimated that a minimum of more than 5,000 Hindus were killed, hundreds of Hindu women were raped and thousands of Hindu men and women were forcibly converted to Islam. Around 50,000 to 75,000 survivors were sheltered in temporary relief camps in Comilla, Chandpur, Agartala and other places. Around 50,000 Hindus remained marooned in the affected areas under the strict surveillance of the Muslims, where the administration had no say. In some areas, Hindus had to obtain permits from the Muslim leaders in order to travel outside their villages. The forcibly converted Hindus were coerced to give written declarations that they had converted to Islam of their own free will. Sometimes they were confined in others' houses and only allowed to be in their own house when an official party came for inspection. The Hindus were forced to pay subscriptions to the Muslim League and jiziyah, the protection tax paid by zimmis in an Islamic state.

Haran Chandra Ghosh Choudhuri, the only Hindu representative to the Bengal Legislative Assembly from the district of Noakhali, described the incidents as "the organized fury of the Muslim mob".Syama Prasad Mookerjee, the former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Calcutta and the former Finance Minister of Bengal, dismissed the argument that the Noakhali incidents were ordinary communal riots. He described the events as a planned and concerted attack by the majority community on the minority community.